[The Hood]

I have two sets of wheels, one for summer and one for winter. I have recently retired a set of Michelin Alpin winter tyres, over 40,000 miles driven, and old rather than worn out. I will probably do the same with a set of Michelin Primacy summer tyres over 45,000 miles driven also not worn out but getting old. The Yeti has done 128,000 miles since new and has only had three sets of tyres since new. Michelin are more expensive but you get what you pay for, I have fitted Michelin cross climates to the winter wheels and when I swap over in a few weeks time will probably leave them on all the time, with no more swapping.

 

[The Hood]

The cross climates are intended for year round use, they are much softer than the others so it will be interesting to see how they do. I got mine from Costco and they were £120 a corner fitted, 215/60/16. The 225/50/17 were the same price but the 16's are a far better ride with the extra air between the rim and road.
As a member of 4x4 Response I need to be able to get around regardless of the weather.

 

[The Hood]

The standard wheels for a Yeti are 17" (other than the Greenline which had 16" wheels) I have a set of 16" Audi wheels which I bought before my Yeti was delivered brand new. I bought them on eBay as a collect only purchase as prices for such items are lower than when delivery is included as an option.

Here are both sizes side by side off and on the vehicle which shows the increase in sidewall, the ride quality is like chalk and cheese. Some Yeti owners managed to get the wheels changed to 16" when ordering but Skoda soon stopped doing that.

 

[The Hood]

Depending on your location and the weather conditions that you drive in there are three classes of tyre to consider, summer, all season and winter tyres.

If you are unlikely to spend much time driving on snow or ice summer tyres would suffice. (Primacy)

If you live in an area which gets a decent amount of ice and snow they might be better replaced with all season tyres. (Cross climate)

If you live in the highlands and get regular snow and ice, winter tyres are slightly better than all season, (Alpin) but the gap between all season and winter tyres is getting smaller and they are a very good alternative.

If you are likely to take your car to Europe in the winter, some countries such as Austria specify winter/all season tyres and a minimum tread depth. Others such as Germany recommend winter or all season tyres but they are not a legal requirement (yet), however should you be involved in an accident you would regret not having them. I mention Germany as we have family members there who up until recently stored their winter tyres in a "tyre hotel" and only had one set of wheels, but have swapped to all seasons.

Summer tyres are designed for longevity and water clearance with a less blocky tread pattern, but start to harden below 7 degrees and loose efficiency.

Winter and all season tyres have a blocky tread designed to fill with snow as snow sticks to snow and they do not harden as the temperature gets below 7 degrees. The blocky tread means they do not clear water quite as well as summer tyres. Winter/all season tyres are not necessarily better in wet mud as the treads will fill with slippery mud and could slip/spin even on a four wheel drive.

AT/all terrain/off road tyres are a different matter with aggressive self cleaning tread patterns and can be noisy and fuel hungry, don't go there.

 

[The Hood]

Hmm… now that’s what I call food for thought, and it’s thrown the Primacy tyre into the ring.

Primacy is a very good summer tyre mine have done over 45,000 miles and I am about to pension them off with lots of tread left. When the temperature drops in a few weeks I will fit the 16 inch wheels with cross climates having retired the Alpins, and leave them on permanently. I have four sets of wheels and tyres across two cars and am downsizing stock. My only concern is how soft the CC's are.
The 17 inch wheels and elderly Primacy tyres will be stashed out of the way and if the car should be sold on will go with it. The longevity of the Primacy and Alpin tyres make having two sets uneconomical.

The picture below is Aachen 2010 (pre Yeti), the arrow points to the top of my roof, 14 inches of snow in one night, the car had been parked clean of all snow, now that is what I call snow.